#157: Ben Prentice + Heavily Armed Clown

— The creators of WTFHappened1971.com discuss what caused the dramatic shift in economic data starting in 1971, when Nixon ended the gold standard convertibility under Bretton Woods.

— Monetary inflation vs. consumer price inflation: QE money flows to asset prices (stocks, real estate, bonds) rather than consumer goods, masking true inflation while enriching asset holders.

— Student loan debt ($1.5 trillion+) represents malinvestment enabled by government lending programs, with college costs rising 100% in 15 years while mainstream inflation metrics ignore this.

— Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and UBI are presented as inevitable policy paths that will struggle with implementation and incentive problems once started.

— Sound money and Bitcoin are framed as the root solution to broken incentives in society—family formation, savings, entrepreneurship, and civil liberty all suffer under inflationary fiat.

— Technology deflation has driven living standards higher *despite* monetary inflation, but a sound currency would better align prices with real productivity gains.

— Review [WTFHappened1971.com](https://www.wtfhappened1971.com) to visualize data breakpoints in productivity, wages, inequality, savings, and social metrics that diverged after the 1971 monetary shift—useful for understanding why Bitcoin matters beyond price.

— Recognize that college tuition, healthcare, and housing inflation are real and accelerating even when official CPI shows restraint; sound money would force these distortions into the open rather than hiding them in asset bubbles.

— Accept that a transition to Bitcoin or any sound-money system will be deflationary and painful for debtors but liberating for savers and future generations; delaying that reckoning through more QE compounds the eventual cost.